Harbor Point protest flies above city

Published 10:12 pm, Thursday, December 6, 2012

STAMFORD -- After years of traditional on-the-ground protests, a labor union has taken its war against Harbor Point developer Building and Land Technology to the skies.

On Thursday, a small yellow plane was spotted flying over the South End and downtown with a banner reading: "BLT BAD FOR CT. CALL CONGRESSMAN HIMES."

The Connecticut Laborers' District Council took responsibility for the attention-grabbing fly-over lasting two hours.

The union, said to represent approximately 8,000 workers in construction and other building and trade fields across the state, has waged a long and expensive campaign against the South End developer for hiring non-union, out-of-state contractors and committing state labor violations.

Charles LeConche, the union's business manager, said the banner, which is slated to fly over Stamford over the next six days, cost roughly $3,000. All told, he said the council has spent $30,000 attacking BLT through leaflets, rallies and two billboards along Interstate 95.

"We're spending a lot of money to expose a problem and nobody is doing anything about it," he said.

But in a shift, the union's latest protest takes aim at U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.

LeConche, who has vigorously lobbied Himes to put pressure on the developer, said he intended the banner "to hit a nerve" with the congressman.

Himes has met with LeConche several times.

In April, he gave the union his support by sending a representative to participate in a protest organized by the Laborer's District Council. In a statement released prior to the event, he said, "By hiring more qualified, local workers at good wages, BLT can demonstrate it wants to invest in local business and the people of Connecticut."

But on Thursday, LeConche, who had a meeting with Himes 10 days ago, expressed frustration with the lack of any further action.

"What has he done to move the ball forward?" he said.

In response, Elizabeth Kerr, a spokesman for Himes, wrote in an e-mail: "The Congressman has been very clear that BLT should hire more of the very qualified local workers who are ready to help build Harbor Point. With no federal funding involved in the project, the federal government has no legal authority over this matter. But the Congressman has made this a priority and has taken every opportunity to make his opinion known."

Kerr said in addition to his statement in April, Himes secured a commitment from Carl Kuehner, the president and chief executive officer of BLT, to meet with LeConche. She claimed that LeConche had not taken advantage of this opportunity.

She then said: "The Congressman has been in Washington for votes most of the last two weeks, and we have yet to receive any invitations from Mr. LeConche to attend any future public events."

LeConche said he has made several attempts to meet with Kuehner, all of which have been unsuccessful.

Among elected officials, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia has been a frequent target of organized labor. In May, LeConche organized a large rally with other union groups in front of the Government Center. Afterward, Pavia said he had spoken with union representatives and was trying to broker a compromise. But, he added, "I can only go so far when it comes to private development."

At $3.5 billion, Harbor Point is considered one of the largest developments in the region. From the start, BLT has refused to enter into any collective bargaining or project labor agreements, which typically involve concessions from unions. The developer has said that it hires both union and non-union workers through a competitive bidding process.

Labor groups have said the practice has led to the hiring of unskilled and undocumented workers which has fostered wage abuses.

Since the project began in 2008, numerous contractors, most of them out-of-state, have been cited by the state Department of Labor for violations over failing to pay worker's compensation insurance as well as misclassifying employees to avoid having to pay fair wages, taxes and other required costs.

A spokesman for BLT did not respond to a request for comment.

LeConche said he had used an aerial banner previously in a fight against a union in New York that had encroached on a Connecticut project.

That time, he said, the tactic worked. The opponent came to the table.

On Thursday, the veteran labor organizer seemed assured that, at the very least, he had gotten his message across.

"Unions started on street corners 100 years ago," he said. "You got to be visible. The squeaky wheel gets the grease."